


The Girl Next Door

by Oliver__Niko



Series: Zestiria Drabble Week [4]
Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Neighbours, Rose being an idiot but hey who cares if it lands you a date with your beautiful neighbour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 19:07:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15691575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oliver__Niko/pseuds/Oliver__Niko
Summary: Rose has been locked out of her apartment with no chance of getting in. Her course of action is to ask her beautiful neighbour, who she has a rather large crush on, if she can stay overnight.





	The Girl Next Door

**Author's Note:**

> For this day, I was wondering about doing a sleepover among all the characters. But I think it would have taken up way more than 1,000 words, which is the maximum amount of words for each day. And so, LaiRose! I've been wanting to write them for a very long time, but never got around to it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!

‘ _Argh, what am I supposed to do?!’_

Rose paces back and forth outside of an apartment’s door. Usually, she is headstrong and does things without question. But today she faces a little more difficulty. Locked out of her own apartment and questioning whether or not she should knock on the door of her beautiful neighbour, who she has had a growing crush on since Rose moved in a couple of months ago, is something she’s not exactly accustomed to dealing with.

‘ _Just knock on and ask if you can stay the night or something. It’s not that hard.’_

Yet even if she has been becoming friends with said neighbour, the thought of randomly asking to stay overnight in her home is still embarrassing, even with Rose’s confidence. She stops pacing and lets out a groan.

“Just _do it,_ idiot!”

“Do what?”

Rose has to hold in a yelp of surprise. The voice belongs to the very person she did not want to see. Tall and as stunning as always, with a sheet of white hair falling all the way down at an impossible length. Really, this woman is like a real life Rapunzel. They shouldn’t be able to make those.

Even her name is pretty. Lailah. How is such a person even real?”

“Ah sorry, I was talking to myself,” Rose laughs, rubbing the back of her neck. She glances down, finding that Lailah is carrying a bag of groceries in either hand. “Want me to help you with that?”

Lailah’s eyes light up happily. “Oh, please! That would be wonderful.”

Rose reaches out a hand to take a bag from Lailah, smiling with satisfaction as she watches the other unlock her apartment door. Perfect; she’s both managed to be of some use rather than stand around stupidly _and_ she has also managed to find her way to get into the apartment. Now she just has to find a way to explain what is going on …

“You can place it down here,” Lailah requests, gesturing to the worktop in her kitchen. As she and Rose place their bags down, she asks, “So why _were_ you talking to yourself and calling yourself an idiot?”

Rose has to hold in another groan. “I – uh, well … I’ve been locked out of my apartment.”

“Oh?” says Lailah, looking at her curiously. “But don’t you have a roommate? Sorey, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but the thing is that he’s gone away to visit his partner. And, well, I managed to leave my own set of keys in there.”

Lailah stares at Rose for a moment before she bursts into a fit of giggles. “Oh my, that is quite the predicament, isn’t it?”

“Don’t laugh at me!” Rose huffs, feeling a little colour rise to her cheeks. She lets out a sigh. “Yeah, I’ve been real stupid. I even didn’t notice until I got back, and it’d be awkward finding a hotel now … so I was hoping I could maybe crash here for the night and find somewhere else tomorrow.”

There, she has said it. It turned out to be easier than she thought, actually. Perhaps actually being in Lailah’s presence isn’t as bad as constructing the scenario in her head.

“How long is he going to be gone for?” asks Lailah.

“Just for three nights. Why?”

“You can stay here for that time if you would like to,” says Lailah with a smile. Rose blinks, having not expected such an offer.

“Are you sure? I’m not going to be intruding or anything?”

Lailah shakes her head, still smiling brightly. “Not at all! It’d be like a sleepover.”

“… For three nights?”

“Yes!”

Rose stares at Lailah in disbelief, before she chuckles and shakes her head. “Here I was getting worried over nothing. I promise I won’t take up too much room or be a nuisance.”

“I wouldn’t dream of you being like that,” Lailah says with amusement. “I have a guest room that you are more than welcome to use. There really isn’t any point in you paying for a hotel when I’m here.”

“I guess so. Thanks, Lailah!” Rose exclaims, before she proceeds to swallow. Now she is realising that Lailah thinks as highly of Rose as Rose thinks of Lailah, she’s wondering now if today might be the day. After all, if she is lucky enough to be offered a stay here for so many nights, even though it was completely out of the blue … perhaps this streak will be able to continue?

“And I, uh, I’d love to pay you back somehow,” Rose says slowly, Lailah letting out a small hum in curiosity. Her head even tilts a little to the side. _Adorable._ “I could take us out for a meal tomorrow. As, um … a date, I suppose?”

Lailah blinks out of surprise. She needs a moment to process Rose’s words, the moment when they sink in clear from the blush which appears on her face. “Oh, that would be lovely!”

Rose almost falls over there and then. “Really?”

“Really! Thank you for the offer, Rose. I, um, I would really enjoy going out with you.”

Her disbelief fading and instead replaced by joy, Rose grins, feeling unbelievably more confident than she had done not long ago. “Great! Then it’s a date! I should probably also cook dinner tonight to –”

“Oh no, please don’t do that,” Lailah says, hurrying to one of the bags of groceries on the worktop. “Sorey has told me how awful of a cook you are.”

“Great, he tells people about that?” Rose exclaims, shaking her head. Yet even so, she’s still smiling, unable to believe what is happening. Staying here overnight – a sleepover, as Lailah had described it – and even managing to score a date … She’s not sure how she got here from pacing outside of Lailah’s front door, but it certainly does not get much better than this.


End file.
